Laserfiche WebLink
Mr. Zelenka liked that the Country Club Road facility represented the re-purposing of an existing structure <br />rather than a completely new construction. <br />Ms. Taylor disagreed with Mr. Ruiz and the staff’s negative assessment of the current City Hall building <br />and felt that the City should use the facility reserves to immediately retrofit the building to comply with <br />seismic life safety standards. She further averred that other options should continue to be considered <br />alternative to the proposed Country Club Road building including allowing EPD officers to take their <br />patrol cars home in the evenings and the use of the previous fire station space to house the EPD. <br />Ms. Taylor believed that implementing a downtown police substation to compliment the proposed Country <br />Club Road police facility was too expensive to consider and felt that the City’s leaders were rushing <br />through the purchase of the Country Club Road building. <br />Ms. Taylor believed that the Country Club Road building would be wiped out in the event of an earthquake <br />that would destroy dams along the Willamette River. <br />Mr. Pryor appreciated the budget committee’s work regarding the next steps for the facility reserves and <br />maintained that it was important that a Eugene police presence be implemented and maintained north of the <br />Willamette River. <br />Mr. Pryor felt it would be important for the City leaders to effectively communicate to the public the urgent <br />need for a new city hall and EPD facility as well as the reasons the Country Club Road building might <br />serve as an efficient and effective space. He noted that successful public outreach on the part of the City <br />might engender greater public support for the new police facility and the City Hall relocation. <br />Mr. Pryor stated that he would not support putting tens of millions of dollars into upgrades of the current <br />City Hall building but felt that the City should hold onto the site. <br />Ms. Ortiz noted that while voters in Eugene had turned down attempts to fund a new police facility through <br />local bond measures, the use of the City’s pre-existing facility reserves toward such ends was an acceptable <br />means of providing a badly needed resource for Eugene police officers. <br />Mr. Brown maintained that the currently proposed use of the facility reserves to purchase the Country Club <br />Road building represented a terrible business plan and would cripple the City’s ability to do anything useful <br />with the remainder of those reserves. <br />Ms. Solomon supported the EPD’s move to Country Club Road and believed that the City should work to <br />unload its current City Hall site into private ownership as soon as possible in order to have it begin <br />generating tax revenue as soon as possible. <br />Mr. Poling noted he was in favor of the three proposed motions regarding the next steps for the facility <br />reserves and felt there needed to be further discussion on the future use of the current City Hall facility. <br />Mr. Poling agreed with Ms. Ortiz’s statement that the use of the facility reserves represented the use of <br />money already in the City’s purview and not the use of a bonding measure where the City did not yet <br />actually have the funds available. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 29, 2009 Page 5 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />